History of Lotto 6/49

What exactly is lotto? It’s a form of gambling which involves the drawing and matching of numbers for a prize. By some governments lotteries are outlawed and others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. Though lotteries were common in the United States and some other countries during the 19th century, by the beginning of the 20th century, most forms of gambling, including lotteries, were illegal in the U.S. and most of Europe until 1960s. Casinos and lotteries began to re-appear in the 1960s throughout the world as a means for governments to raise revenue without raising taxes. Finally, on March 12, 1964, New Hampshire became the first state in the United States to sell lottery tickets in the modern era. In the United States, the existence of lotteries is subject to the laws of each jurisdiction. As of 2013, 44 states and territories offer government-operated lotteries. Presently, large portions of many American state lotteries are used to fund public education systems.

The first modern US multi-jurisdictional lottery was formed in 1985, linking Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. In 1988, the Multi-State Lottery Association was formed with Oregon, Iowa, Kansas, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Missouri, and the District of Columbia as its charter members; it is best known for Powerball, which was designed to build up very large jackpots. The other major US multi-jurisdictional game, then known as The Big Game (now called Mega Millions), was formed in 1996 by Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan and Virginia as its charter members. As of April 13, 2011, Mega Millions is available in 43 jurisdictions, with Powerball in 44; both games are available in 42 jurisdictions.

The lottery comes in many different forms. In the Mega Millions multi-state lottery in the United States, 5 numbers are drawn from a group of 75 and 1 number is drawn from a group of 15, and a player must match all 6 balls to win the jackpot prize. The chance of winning the jackpot is 1 in 258,890,850. In the SuperEnalotto of Italy, players must match 6 numbers out of 90. The chances of winning the jackpot are 1 in 622,614,630. Matching more numbers, the payout goes up. Although none of these additional prizes affect the chances of winning the jackpot, they do improve the odds of winning something and therefore add a little to the value of the ticket. Washington Lotto, started on October 24th, 1990 is one of the state lotteries in the US offering lotto 6/49.

Lotto 6/49 is one of the most common forms of lottery throughout the world. Countries that have a national Lotto 6/49 include Kenya, Morocco, Canada, Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Romania etc. As the name implies, six numbers are drawn from a set of 49. The odds of matching 6 lucky numbers are one in 13,983,816. Although the United States don’t have a national Lotto 6/49, or any national lottery for that matter, you can easily purchase tickets online. The legality of such tickets falls into question throughout the United States, as the gambling laws related to lottery play generally have not kept pace with the spread of technology.